ABERDEENSHIRE, a north-eastern county of Scotland, bounded north and east by the North sea, south by Kincardine, Angus and Perth, and west by Inverness and Banff. It has a coast-line of 65m., and is the sixth Scottish county in area, occupying 1,261,521ac. or 1,970 square miles. The county is generally hilly, since from the south-west, near the centre of Scotland, the Grampians send out various branches in a general north-easterly direction. The county is watered by the rivers Dee, Don, Ythan, Ugie and Deveron—names, especially the two first, associated with some of the finest valley scenery on the eastward slope of Scotland. The upper valley of the Dee, about Braemar, penetrates the central mass of crystalline schists be longing to the metamorphic rocks of the eastern highlands, with extensive intrusions of later granites, which, on the border with Banffshire, rise in the fine mass of Ben Macdhui (4,296ft.) to a height second only to that of Ben Nevis among the mountains of the British Isles. This mountain commands views of one of the most beautiful parts of the central highlands, with the summits of Braeriach (4,248ft.), Cairntoul (4,241 ft.) and Cairn gorm (Banffshire) near by, the columnar cliffs of Corrie Etcha chan, and Loch Avon in its deep gully, 2,5ooft. above sea-level. Among many other heights, "dark" Lochnagar, south-east of Brae mar, is famed through a well-known song of Byron; and Ben wachie, on the Banffshire border, through John Imlah's verse "0 gin I were where Gadie rins." The shire is popularly divided into five districts. Of these the first is Mar, mostly between Dee and Don, the southern half of the county with the city of Aberdeen. The soil on the Dee is sandy, and on the Don loamy. The second district, Formartine, between the lower Don and Ythan, has a sandy coast, succeeded inland by a clayey, fertile, cultivated tract, and then by low hills, moors, mosses and tilled land. Buchan, the third district, lies north of the Ythan, and com prises the north-east part of the county. The surface is bare, low, flat or gently undulating and in places peaty. The coast is in parts bold and rocky, and at the Bullers of Buchan, 6m. south of Peterhead, the sea enters a basin by a natural arch and boils up violently in stormy weather. Buchan Ness is the most easterly point of Scotland. The fourth district, Garioch, in the centre of the shire, is beautiful, undulating, loamy and fertile. Strathbogie, the fifth district south of the Deveron, mostly consists of hills, moors and mosses.
The schists extend east from the central mass to Formartine and Peterhead. East down Dee and Don and north across the plain of Buchan towards Rattray head and Fraser burgh there is a development of biotite gneiss, partly of sedi mentary and perhaps partly of igneous origin. A belt of slate quarried for roofing purposes runs along the west border of the county from Turriff by Auchterless and the Foudland hills towards the Tap o'Noth near Gartly. The metamorphic rocks have been invaded in almost every part of the county by igneous materials, some before, and by far the larger series after the folding of the strata. There are chalybeate springs at Peterhead and Pan nanich near Ballater. The later granites subsequent to the plica tion of the schists have a wide distribution on the Ben Macdhui and Ben Avon range, and on Lochnagar; they stretch east from Ballater by Tarland to Aberdeen and north to Bennachie. Isolated masses appear at Peterhead and at Strichen. The Aberdeen granites have been widely used for building and paving, and extensively quarried at Rubislaw, Peterhead, Kemnay and else where. The glacial deposits in the county indicate an eastward movement off the high ground at the head of Dee and Don, while the mass spreading outwards from the Moray Firth invaded the low plateau of Buchan; but at a certain stage there was a marked defection northwards parallel with the coast, as proved by the deposit of red clay north of Aberdeen. At a later date the local glaciers laid down materials on top of the red clay. The rivers abound with salmon and trout. Loch Muick, the largest of the few lakes in the county, 1,3ioft. above the sea, 21m. long and -4 to lrn. broad, lies some 81m. south-west of Ballater, and has Altnagiuthasach, a royal shooting-box, near its south-west end. Red deer (in Braemar), grouse, and partridges are plentiful.
The climate of the upper Dee and Don valleys has a reputation as the driest and most bracing in the British isles, and grain is cultivable up to I,600ft. above sea-level—considerably higher than elsewhere in the north of Great Britain. At Loch Muick vegetables, currants, laurels and roses flourish; the larch grows well, and elsewhere in Braemar natural timber, especially Scots fir in addition to larch, is particularly fine. Ash-trees, 5ft. in girth, are found at i,3ooft. elevation.
The country now forming the shires of Aberdeen and Banff was originally peopled by northern Picts, whom Ptolemy called Taixali. Evidence of effective Roman occupation is lack ing, though so-called Roman camps have been discovered on the upper Ythan and Deveron. Traces of the native inhabitants, however, are numerous. Weems or earth-houses are fairly com mon in the west. Relics of crannogs or lake-dwellings exist at Loch Ceander, or Kinnord, 5m. N.E. of Ballater, at Loch Goul in the parish of New Machar, and elsewhere. Duns or forts occur on hills at Dunecht, where the dun encloses an area of two acres, Barra near Old Meldrum, Tap o'Noth, Dunnideer near Insch and other places. Monoliths, standing stones and stone circles abound, and there are many early Christian sculp tured stones. Efforts to convert the Picts were begun by Ternan in the 5th century and continued by Columba (who founded a monastery at Old Deer), Drostan, Maluog and Machar, but dis sensions within the Columban Church and the expulsion of the clergy from Pictland by the Pictish king Nectan in the 8th century, undid most of the progress that had been made. The Vikings and Danes periodically raided the coast, but when (I o40) Macbeth ascended the throne of Scotland the Northmen, under the guidance of Thorfinn, refrained from further trouble in the north-east. Macbeth was afterwards slain at Lumphanan (1057), a cairn on Perkhill marking the spot. Along with numerous Anglo-Saxon exiles after the Norman conquest of England there also came to Aberdeenshire Flemings who introdpced various industries, Saxons who brought farming, and Scandinavians who taught nautical skill. The Celts revolted more than once, but Malcolm Canmore and his successors crushed them and con fiscated their lands. In the 12th and 13th centuries some of the great Aberdeenshire families arose, including the earl of Mar (c. 1122), the Leslies, Freskins (ancestors of the dukes of Sutherland), Durwards, Bysets, Comyns and Cheynes, and in most cases their founders were immigrants. The Celtic thanes and their retainers slowly fused with the settlers. They declined to take advantage of the disturbed condition of the country during the wars of the Scots independence, and made common cause with the bulk of the nation. Though John Comyn (d. 1300?), one of the competitors for the throne, had considerable interests in the shire, his claim received locally little support. In 1296 Edward I. made a triumphal march to the north to terrorize the more turbulent nobles. Next year William Wallace surprised the English garrison in Aberdeen, but failed to capture the castle. In 1303 Edward again visited the county, halting at the castle of Kildrummy, then in the possession of Robert Bruce, and made Aberdeen his headquarters during several months. After Robert Bruce's death (1329) there was intermittent anarchy in the shire. Aberdeen itself was burned by the English in 1336, and the resettlement of the districts of Buchan and Strathbogie occasioned constant quarrels on the part of the dispossessed. Moreover, the Crown embroiled itself by trying to subdue some of the Highland chieftains. This policy culminated in the in vasion of Aberdeenshire by Donald, lord of the Isles, who was, however, defeated at Harlaw, near Inverurie, by the earl of Mar in 1411. In the 15th century Sir Alexander Forbes was created Lord Forbes (c. 1442), and Sir Alexander Seton Lord Gordon in 1437 and earl of Huntly in 1445. Bitter feuds raged between these families but the Gordons' domains, already vast, were enhanced by the acquisition, through marriage, of the earldom of Sutherland (1514). Meanwhile commerce with the Low Countries, Poland and the Baltic had grown apace, Camp vere, near Flushing in Holland, becoming the emporium of the Scottish traders, while education was fostered by the foundation of King's college at Aberdeen in 1494 (Marischal college followed a century later). At the Reformation so little intuition had the clergy of the drift of opinion that at the very time that re ligious structures were being despoiled in the south, the building and decoration of churches went on in the shire. The change was acquiesced in without much tumult, though rioting took place in Aberdeen and St. Machar's cathedral in the city suffered damage. The 4th earl of Huntly offered some resistance, on behalf of the Catholics, to the influence of Lord James Stuart, afterwards the regent, Moray, but was defeated and killed at Corrichie on the Hill of Fare in 1562. As years passed it was apparent that Presbyterianism was less generally acceptable than episcopacy, of which system Aberdeenshire remained for genera tions the stronghold in Scotland. In 1638 the National Covenant was ordered to be subscribed, a demand so grudgingly responded to that the earl of Montrose visited the shire in the following year to enforce acceptance. The Cavaliers, not being disposed to yield, dispersed an armed gathering of Covenanters in the affair called the Trot of Turriff (1639), in which the first blood of the Civil War was shed. The Covenanters obtained the upper hand in a few weeks, when Montrose appeared at the bridge of Dee and compelled the surrender of Aberdeen, which had no choice but to cast in its lot with the victors. Montrose, however, soon changed sides, and defeated the Covenanters under Lord Balfour of Burleigh (1644), and again after a stiff fight on July 2, 1645, at Alford. Peace was temporarily restored on the "engagement" of the Scots commissioners to assist Charles I. On his return from Holland in 165o Charles II. was welcomed in Aberdeen, but in little more than a year General Monk entered the city at the head of the Cromwellian regiments. The English garrison remained till 1659, and next year the Restoration was effusively hailed, and prelacy was again in the ascendant. After the Revo lution (1688) episcopacy passed under a cloud, and as George I. was antipathetic to the clergy, it happened that Jacobitism and episcopalianism came to be regarded in the shire as identical. The earl of Mar raised the standard of revolt in Braemar (Sept. 6, 1715) ; a fortnight later James was proclaimed at Aberdeen cross; the Pretender landed at Peterhead on Dec. 22, and in Feb. 1716 he was back again in France. The collapse of the first rising ruined many of the lairds, and when the second rebellion occurred 3o years afterwards the county in the main was apathetic, though the insurgents held Aberdeen for five months, and Lord Lewis Gordon won a trifling victory for Prince Charles Edward at Inverurie (Dec. 23,
Population and Government.—In 191I the population numbered 312,177, and in 1931, 300,430 (158,462 females). In 1931, only 752 spoke Gaelic as well as English, and 19 persons Gaelic only; although as late as 1830 Gaelic was the common tongue almost throughout Braemar at least. The chief towns, with populations in 1931, are Aberdeen (154,836), Peterhead (12,545), Fraserburgh (9,720), Huntly (3,778), Inverurie (4,524), Turriff (2,298). The Supreme Court of Justiciary sits in Aberdeen to try cases from the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine. The three counties are under a sheriff, and there are three sheriffs-substitute resident in Aberdeen, who sit also at Fraserburgh, Huntly and Peterhead. The county, with Kincardineshire, sends three members to parliament. The county town, Aberdeen, returns two members.
Except in favoured tracts, as in Formartine and Garioch, the glacial drift soils are generally poor, gravelly or peaty ; but in no part of Scotland has careful cultivation more successfully increased productivity. About two-thirds of the population depend on agriculture. Farms are small compared with those in the south-eastern counties. Oats are the predominant crop, wheat has practically gone out of cultivation, but turnips and barley are grown. Great numbers of the home-bred crosses of cattle are fattened for London and local markets, and Irish animals are imported on an extensive scale for the same pur pose.
The white and herring fishery is the next most important industry to agriculture, its development having been due almost exclusively to the introduction of steam trawlers. Aberdeen is the chief Scottish centre for trawling and great line fishing, and the chief port for white fish. Fraserburgh is one of the largest centres of the North sea herring fishing. Haddocks are salted and rock-dried (speldings) or smoked (finnans). The ports and creeks are divided between the fishery districts of Peter head, Fraserburgh and Aberdeen, the last of which includes also three Kincardineshire ports. The herring season for Aberdeen, Peterhead and Fraserburgh is from June to September, at which time the ports are crowded with boats from other Scottish dis tricts. There are valuable salmon-fishings—rod, net and stake net—on Dee, Don, Ythan and Ugie.
From the south Aberdeen city is ap proached by the L.M.S.R. (via Perth, Forfar and Stonehaven), and the L.N.E.R. (via Dundee, Montrose and Stonehaven). A line of the latter company runs via Kintore and Huntly to Keith and Elgin. Branch lines from Aberdeen to Ballater by Deeside, from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh (with a branch at Maud for Peterhead and at Ellon .for Cruden bay and Boddam), from Kintore to Alford, and from Inverurie to Old Meldrum and also to Macduff. By sea there is regular communication with London, Leith, Newcastle and Hull, Inverness, Wick and other ports, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and the Continent. The highest macadam ized road crossing the East Grampians rises to a point 2,2ooft. above sea-level.
